3 Get Life In Jail For Fatal Carjack

A Federal Judge Gives The Maximum Penalty For The Crime, In Which 2 Were Killed

April 27, 1993|By Jim Leusner of The Sentinel Staff

Three Polk County men convicted of abducting three men and executing two of them last November in an Osceola County pasture were sentenced Monday to life plus 25 years in federal prison.

Defense attorneys and the defendants pleaded for leniency. Prosecutors asked for a message of deterrence. Families of the victims demanded vengeance.

Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett decided that the killings of Anthony Faiella, 17, of Kissimmee, and Anthony Clifton, 20, of St. Cloud, were so ''cold-blooded and pitiless'' that only the maximum penalty fit the crimes.

She ordered Jermaine Foster, 19, of Lakeland; Gerard Booker, 22, of Auburndale; and Alf Catholic, 21, of Winter Haven, to identical terms of life without parole.

The three were charged under a federal carjacking law passed last October - and were the first suspects nationwide to be convicted of a carjacking involving a murder.

In a hushed Orlando courtroom, Fawsett called the case a ''tragedy'' but the circumstances ''horrendous.'' She said the killings have frightened the public.

''Frankly, what you have done . . . is a clarion call for other copycats,'' Fawsett said to a packed courtroom with a dozen U.S. marshals looking on. ''I'm going to set a precedent to discourage such future lawlessness.''

Foster, Booker and Catholic, standing side by side in bright orange jail uniforms and ankle-chains, showed little reaction. Attorneys said they would appeal.

''I feel relieved,'' said Clifton's mother, Luz Maria, afterward.

''Thank God,'' said Faiella's mother, Theresa.

The three suspects were charged with carjacking passengers in a pickup truck at gunpoint in Polk County on Nov. 28. The truck, which developed mechanical problems, was used the next day to ram a Nissan Pathfinder driven by Faiella.

The suspects, accompanied by a fourth man, Leondra Henderson, 17, of Auburndale, abducted Faiella and passengers Clifton, Michael Rentas, 20, of St. Cloud, and Tammy George, 25, of Kissimmee, and drove them to a pasture.

Faiella and Clifton were shot in the head, but a bullet meant for Rentas' grazed a hand cupped around his head. He played dead and survived with George, who was not hurt.

Foster, Booker and Catholic were arrested after a massive search by the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and authorities in Osceola and Polk counties. All have been held without bail at the Lake County jail. Prosecutor Randy Gold said Monday that Foster and Booker have plotted unsuccessfully to escape.

The victims' mothers, with their husbands at their sides, asked the judge to impose the harshest sentence.

''They had no sympathy for my son. I have no sympathy for them,'' Theresa Faiella told the judge. ''My son was brutally murdered and I feel no remorse from them. And there has to be a place in hell for the three of them.''

She noted proudly that Anthony will be awarded his high school-equivalency diploma posthumously next month.

Luz Maria Clifton, a member of the Stop Turning Out Prisoners anti-crime group, wore a STOP T-shirt and asked for the life terms.

The three men also were ordered to pay about $28,000 in restitution to victims' families, hospitals and insurance companies. Gold, however, said it was unlikely the men would pay. All three are indigent and have court-appointed lawyers.

All three also face the death penalty in a murder trial scheduled later this year. Henderson awaits sentencing in the carjacking case and has struck a deal to receive life in the state case.

Foster's lawyer, Bill Sheaffer, asked Fawsett to show leniency for his client, who witnesses said fired the fatal shots. He said a lighter sentence would show youths like Foster ''who have lost all hope and turned their energies to a life of crime . . . that you have hope.''

Catholic's mother, Elkanah, said she did not know how her son became entangled in the case. She pleaded for mercy.

Questioned by Catholic's lawyer, Chris Smith, she said her son had no reason to steal and was a well-liked, church-going man whom she raised alone by working two jobs.

Booker's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, said his client had no idea anyone would be killed.

Booker, the only defendant to address the judge, said he understood he had to be punished but that he had nothing to do with the two killings. Authorities allege his gambling debts set the first carjacking in motion.

''If I know somebody was supposed to kill somebody, why would I kill three people and let one live?'' Booker asked.